What about it, Evans?
by Mylifeasafangirl
Summary: The thing about being friends with the Marauders is that people often notice you... Sometimes for the wrong reasons. Of course,that means there's always talk about you in some way or another. So how do Lily and her friends cope with it? Please Read and Review and also follow the story and my profile! Currently, looking for a beta!
1. Chapter 1

Lily had never really fit in anywhere. In the muggle world, she had been shut out from the other children because she could do weird things that they couldn't do and were scared of, and in the wizarding world, she didn't grow up as a witch or have a magical family member so wasn't classed as an actual witch by many students. No, Lily Evans had never really fit in anywhere, she never really had many friends and she didn't really have much of a family that knew about her. However, she didn't mind not fitting in; it made her more unique, the friends she did have were amazing and the best anyone could ask for and the family that did know about her loved her anyway and that was enough for her. Whilst her life might not be as great as other peoples, it was great for her and she wouldn't change it a bit.

In a few minutes, Lily would be on the Hogwarts Express to her beloved school to start her sixth year. She might have met up with her friends Marlene McKinnon, Mary MacDonald, Alice Prewett and Dorcas Meadows, but that didn't mean she wouldn't squeal and gush when she saw them. Just like how when she finally sat in the typical compartment on the train that her and her friends always sat in, she wouldn't try and familiarise herself with the walls and seats, just like every year. Just like how when she eventually saw Potter and the other Marauders, she would scowl and try her best to ignore Sirius obviously point her out to James as she passed. However, this year she realised that she had to try and keep her promise to Remus. That was new. And probably hard. Over the holidays, Lily had been in regular contact with her favourite Marauder through letters and during that, he had somehow made her promise to try and make friends with James...

Lily knew that Remus was probably right. James had matured, it wasn't his fault that her best friend had insulted her with the worst name she could think of, it was Severu- no, Snape's. James had stopped attacking people in the corridors for no reason, he had stopped doing ridiculously stupid things to get her attention and he had actually stopped being annoying to the point of 'I will kill him'. She had to admit to herself that she had thought to make an effort this year, even before Remus made her promise.

As she reached the magical barrier through to Platform 9 ¾, Lily dragged herself back to reality rather her thoughts. Making sure no muggles noticed her disappear, Lily slipped back in to the magical world and took a deep breath. She was home. Where she actually belonged and could be herself. Straining to stretch herself far enough upward so she could see over the crowd for her friends, Lily started to make her way forward and accidentally bumped in to a tall middle aged woman. Apologising profusely, Lily watched as the woman turned slowly until she faced the redhead. Instantly, Lily noticed the eyes. They were hazel, just like James'. And the elderly man next to her had the same messy black, though greying, hair as the Marauder. Lily's heart slowed.

"I'm so very, very sorry, ma'am. I wasn't looking where I was go. Are you alright? Can I help you in anyway?" Lily fussed, setting her bag down on the floor and hugging herself to stop herself from shaking.

"I'm quite alright, dear, please do stop apologising. Are you, by any chance, Lily Evans?", the woman asked curiously.

"Umm, yes I am"

"Oh good, I've been waiting years to meet you. I'm Sally Potter and this here is my husband, Charlus. Our son hasn't stopped talking about you since he came home for Christmas in first year! You're just as beautiful as he said and you have such gor-" Mrs Potter introduced her self before being cut off by a embarassed voice.

"Mum? What are you doing? Who are you talking to?", James asked as her neared the group, unable to see the redhead as she was hiding herself behind Sally.

"Oh, we're just saying hello to your friend, Lily. She's so amazingly nice, isn't she James?" Mr Potter finally spoke up.

Stunned James, walked closer so he was able to see Lily. Suddenly, James dodged around his parents and whispered to Lily urgently, "I'm so sorry Lil, I didn't mean for you to ever find out. Just ignore them, you'll be fine, I swear", looking down at the girl with pleading and giant eyes.

"It's fine James. I love your parents already. They're fantastic, honestly, and they've only said good things, _I _swear" Lily whispered back. She had remembered her promise to Remus and instinctively said his first name, visibly causing him to catch a glint in his eyes. Not something of victory, but more of surprise.

Five or ten minutes passed as the group of four chatted easily, Lily all the time aware of how friendly she had acted without even meaning to. Maybe she really did want to be friends with him. After all she was good friends with Remus, on pretty good terms with Sirius and Peter hardly spoke to her but she thought of him as someone she liked. As she thought, her mouth went on autopilot as it usually did when she was talking to parents of friends, until she was suddenly jolted out of James shaking her shoulder.

"We have to go now, Lil, the trains going to leave in a minute"

"OK then. It was nice meeting you, Sally, Charlus. I look forward to seeing you again!" Lily said goodbye and shook their hands politely before being swept up into a hug by the couple. Laughing James hugged his parents and dragged Lily, holding her luggage, to the train.

"Thanks for, um, pretending you were my mate. You know, just then. I appreciate it because I know you hate me but that was awesome what you did. My parents don't know much about what goes on between us just what I tell them ab-",

"James, shut up"

"Huh, sorry", his head dropped embarassed.

Noticing what it must've sounded like, Lily hopped on to the step for the train and turned to face him, "No, I don't mean it like shut up because I hate you. I mean shut up as in you've got it all wrong. I wasn't lying to impress your parents or save your skin. I was doing it because they're nice people and over the summer... I thought it would be a good idea to try and be your friend. I also promised Remus I would try. So yeah, it was more for me to know my, hopefully, new friends parents and to show you I'm not really the bitch I act towards you" Lily blurted.

James fell silent. The look he was giving Lily was like he just watched his favourite Quidditch team won the Quidditch World Cup when they were at the bottom of the tables before. It was full of hope, surprise, elation and confusion.

Half smiling in awkwardness, Lily turned and gestured for him to get on the train before walking along the hallway to find her friends.

"Wait. Are you serious? You actually want to be my friend? Is this some sort of joke because I don't think you'd be that low..." James finally gasped out.

"You're right it's all a joke... Merlin, James I'm not kidding! I genuinely want to be your friend. I know its random and you probably don't want to risk it but, hey, I want to be friends so I guess its up to you now?", her emerald green eyes were hopeful staring up at the boy towering over her. James stayed still for a minute, obviously thinking everything over. He smirked.

"Hey Lily Evans, I'm James Potter, do you want to be my friend?"

"Hi James Potter, I would love to be you friend".

The two smiled shyly at each other, shook hands to confirm it mockingly and continued searching for their friends. Every compartment was full, that they passed, until they neared the back of the train where it was less crowded. Eventually, the duo found their friends. Only they were all in the same compartment. All eight of them were crammed into the tiny space, with a few people nearly on each others laps.

Exchanging confused looks, Lily and James entered the compartment and were greeted by a stunned silence, incredulous stares and a smug grin from Remus who winked at Lily who instantly blushed.

"What's going on here then?" Marlene and Sirius both accused at the same time, in perfect synchronization. They then both glared at each other before smirking and resuming their stare at the two.

Soon enough, James and Lily, with a little help from Remus, had explained what had happened over the summer and on the platform outside. The audience nodded and grinned accordingly until the duo tried to sit down and ended up on the floor because there was no space. More time was spent trying to think of a way to make the space bigger so they could fit the 10 teenagers comfortably until Peter chirped out about an expanding charm which worked perfectly. The rest of the three hour train ride was spent catching up, exchanging holiday gossip and playing Exploding Snap. This was the most fun that Lily had had all summer and she was even more elated to be going back to Hogwarts. This year might result in war in the Wizarding World, might result in even more stress and worry and maybe even in more arguments than last year. But at least she had her friends that would stick with her through everything. This would be the year she got her friends and people understood who she was for her personality rather than her blood status. Maybe this year was going to be better than the last one.


	2. Chapter 2

Soon enough, the train ride was over, students were filing out of the train towards the carriages and, as usual in Scotland, it was raining. The group were soaked to the bone when they finally found an empty carriage before jumping in and laughing at each others appearance. Most of them looked as if they were a drowned cat, only Mary was able to have some resemblance of dignity because of hiding under Remus' cloak having stolen it to sleep under in the compartment. However, their spirits weren't dampened by the weather, in fact it only made them more hyper and restless. Everyone was laughing and chatting, even as they bombed out of the carriage, up the main steps and into the Entrance Hall before magically drying themselves and going to sit down at the Gryffindor table.

Soon enough, the Great Hall was full and McGonagall finally stood to fetch and warn the First Years. It was now that James fell silent next to Lily. He was tense and so was Sirius opposite him. What was going on? James and Sirius were tense just after the First Years had been summoned?

Curiosity getting the better of her, Lily leaned over to James and whispered in his ear, his hair tickling his nose, "What's wrong James? You and Sirius have gone all tense".

Shaking his head, James turned so he was almost touching Lily's nose with his own, "My sister is about to be sorted today. We know how upset she'll be if she isn't sorted into Gryffindor. She thinks that it will be the biggest dishonour and blah blah blah".

Hearing the conversation, Sirius added, "We know it's not true but we spent all summer trying to persuade her she was wrong and it would be fine if she was a Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw. But no, she really wants to a be lion. Of course, I mean, we are totally awesome" he joked at the end seeing the panicked look on James' face. It didn't work.

As the First Years stumbled in, looking up in awe at the ceiling as mass of students watching them, Lily watched out for a girl with black hair like James'. She nearly missed her. Instead of having crazy black hair, her hair was straight, long and tame. However, she was the spitting image of James, down to the way she grinned at the Marauders as she passed and then double take at Lily.

Giggling at James' blush, Lily watched as the new students were sorted. A majority were Hufflepuff, a few Ravenclaw and Slytherin and nearly a quarter of them were Gryffindor. Including James' sister. As soon as she was sorted,the girl darted over to sit by her brother who instantly kissed her forehead and hugged her affectionately.

"Happy now sis?" Sirius joked, ruffling the girls hair.

"Of course I am, Merlin do you think I would be sad?! Anyway, new people! Hi I'm Lucy! Nice to meet you" the girl introduced herself , leaning around James to smile at everyone.

Alice, Dorcas, Marlene and Mary all introduced themselves to Lucy but by the time it was Lily's turn, Lucy interrupted her,

"Oh, don't bother introducing yourself, Lil. I already know you and everything abou-". James' hand had clapped over her mouth, his face was pale and red at the same time and the glare he was giving his sister would have petrified Lily. But Lucy was unaffected. James's hand suddenly came away with a yelp and he started wiping it on his robes that he had put on earlier on the train. She had obviously licked his hand.

Coughing to hide his laughter, Remus turned from his conversation with Dorcas and distracted Lucy with Sirius as the food appeared so that James could explain to Lily as Remus knew he was desperate to do.

"I'm so sorry, Lil. I didn't tell her, I was telling mum and dad and she must have been hiding outside the door and eavesdropping. I'm so sorry, honestly"

"James, don't be an idiot. I know that you've told your parents, obviously, and I don't care. Why would I care about your sister knowing? She seems awesome and I think I'll get on well with her. In fact, I think she'll be helpful in teasing you a lot, so beware... Now eat, you're being ridiculous" Lily scolded teasingly.

Dinner passed easily with lots of chatter and laughter between the group and James' sister. Eventually, Dumbledore stood and sent everyone to bed quickly, causing lots of bleary eyed and yawning students to troop out of the Hall, full from their dinners. It seemed that the Marauders, Lily, Dorcas, Marlene, Mary, Alice and Lucy were the only people who still had a morsel of energy. Being the typical boys, James and Sirius challenged each other to a piggy back race; the first one back to Gryffindor Tower without being caught, won. Obviously, James crept up behind Lily and swung her on to his back easily whilst Sirius grabbed Marlene as his partner. Neither wanted to forfeit, of course they would pick the smallest two.

The race began.

Lily was carried laughing as loud as she could in the thrill of it through secret passageways she hadn't noticed before and up flights of stairs so fast she started to get slightly dizzy. When James reached the area of the castle that McGonagall resided in, he slowed slightly and shushed Lily. To muffle her giggles, Lily shoved her head into the crook of James' neck where it connected to his shoulder. Though James tried not to show it, his whole body tensed up. Awkwardly, Lily turned her head so her mouth was near his ear,

"What's wrong James? Do you want me to get down?"

"No. nothings wrong, I'm just on alert... If you get down, I'll forfeit and Sirius will make me do something stupid. Please don't get down?" his voice sounded a little tense.

"Alright, I won't. I'm just going to put my head back, if thats ok, so that a professor won't hear us because I'm laughing"

James nodded. Carefully, James started forward, keeping to the shadows so he wasn't seen by anyone, stepping carefully so he didn't step on a loose stone and trip over or make a noise. As soon as he was out of the corridor, James was running full pelt up stairs and corridors towards the Tower. Lily realised just how fast the Quidditch player was. If she tried to look at the floor or walls, they blurred, she couldn't make out any individual items around her, just dark or light colours that could have been tricks of the light.

A minute later, they arrived at the Fat Lady. What should have taken ten minutes, had taken four, Lily was impressed. Only a few seconds later, Sirius ran around the corner complaining,

"Why are you so heavyyyy?"

"I'm not heavy, idiot, you're just weak" Marlene scowled.

From the look on Marlene's face, this had been happening all the way here. Finally the duo noticed James and Lily standing by the portrait with smug looks on their faces,

"Oh so, Sirius, Marlene, you finally decided to join us, hmm?" James mocked.

"I'm so sorry my Highness, I'm afraid my noble steed was not up to the job. I'm afraid to admit that you have won the competition and are allowed to think of the worst of dares for Sirius and I" Marlene had been friends with James since they were little; they lived next to each other in what could've been the middle of nowhere and their parents were best friends before them. It made sense for the two to be friends from a young age. And, of course, when James and Sirius became best friends, it was only inevitable for Marlene and Sirius to become friends as well. However, the relationship between the two wasn't normal; they bickered and were protective like brother and sister but the way they sometimes acted towards each other was as if they were mortal enemies. Lily found it all very confusing. Even with Marlene as her best friend out of the four girls she shared a dorm with, even out of all her friends, Lily was still unsure as to what was happening. In all fairness, it seemed that Marlene and Sirius seemed to be too.

Smirking, Lily said the new password to the Fat Lady and led the way inside to an empty Common Room, and upon finding it empty, dived on to the sofa in front of the fire. Slightly impressed, James forced Lily to sit up so he could also sit on the couch leaving Marlene and Sirius to glare at each other from the opposite arm chairs. Everything was moderately silent as Lily and James debated what the dare should be in hushed voices and the two black haired friends sulked, until the rest of the group entered the room. Jumping up, Sirius moaned,

"Moony, they beat us! It's all Marlene's fault! Did you know she is really very, very heavy? I mean... come on, you wouldn't expect it, would you?"

Throughout this, Remus and Mary both raised an eyebrow sceptically whilst Alice's mouth quirked and interjected,

"Marlene's far from heavy, dolt. She's light, you're probably just lazy and have no strength. You know I'm right" she mocked, winking to let Sirius know she was joking.

Laughing, Lucy, Remus, Dorcas, Mary, Peter, and Alice all settled on the floor and remaining sofa and watched as Lily and James debated. It took a while for them to finally resurface from the conversation but when they did they grinned evilly at their two competitors, making them shrink back down in the armchairs they had claimed.

Coughing to get everyone's attention, James began, "So, your dare is to go down to McGonagall and ask for her blessing for you two to get married as you are engaged..."

"That's a very bad dare, James and you know it..." Peter put in.

"Ah but Peter," Lily reprimanded, "during this, they will only be in their underwear; Sirius in his boxers and Marlene in her bra and underwear, with freshly snogged hair and appearance. They are not allowed to cover up on their way there or back or in front of her. They aren't allowed to tell anyone who sees to go away or leave them alone. Also they have to act as if they're in love the whole time... I think that was all"

James nodded which caused everyone to pale. James was out for a laugh and Lily's brain added with James' mischievousness definitely equalled what James was after. Suddenly, Sirius received a cunning look in his eyes,

"Well if we have to have freshly snogged hair and appearance, what better way to do that than to have a passionate make out session?". He winked at Marlene.

"Come on then, Black, woo me and we'll go get our blessing... We'll be back in a few minutes, guys!"

That was another thing about the two that confused Lily, they had days like today where it seemed as of they were some horny couple that actually were in love.

As the two left, everyone rearranged themselves; James moved to sit on the floor to talk Quidditch with Dorcas and Mary (they were both on the Quidditch team as well as James), Remus moved up to sit with Lily and Peter and Alice started up a mini wizard chess tournament while they waited. However, what Lily was focusing on, was Remus' smug look towards Lily and then James alternatively.

"Be quiet, Lupin" she grumbled.

"I was being quiet! All I'm trying to say is that I'm happy you're making an effort even if it is because I forced you... but still it seems to me that you have your own reasons as well?"

Lily was quiet for a moment.

"I had been thinking that he is a good friend to you guys, and he has matured which is what I said I wanted him to do last year.. I guess, I saw him with you guys, and I looked at myself and how I am so annoyingly high strung and I thought that, because being his mate wouldn't be too bad, it would be a good idea in more than one way. He, being so carefree, could bring me down to a normal level and make me a more fun person to be around... If you tell him any of this to him or anyone, I will personally kill you with my bare hands, understood?"

Remus glupped and nodded, slightly intimidated. Satisfied she turned happily and started talking to her friend about what he thought the year ahead would bring for them.

By the time the 'few minutes' were over (it had been at least ten) the aim had been perfected and both of them were glowing with ruffled hair and swollen lips. Catching the attention of James, Sirius announced,

"OK, so now we look the part..."

"You need to be in just your underwear, remember?" Dorcas joked.

Looking at the brunette who had just spoken dead in the eye, Sirius reached down to his shirt hem and pulled it off over him, dumped it on the floor and proceeded to do the same for his trousers. Marlene following the example given after staring astounded for a moment before Alice smirked at her, grinned happily when the looks on everyone's faces showed they didn't think the dare would actually be completed.

After a moment, James suggested, "Well we can make sure the dare is completed perfectly by using the invisibility cloak, cant we?"

"YOU HAVE AN INVISIBILTY CLOAK?!", all the girls but Marlene chimed incredulous.

"Um.. well... Yes? I mean, yes. I do. Its a family heirloom of course. But anyway, there's not enough of it to cover everyone here. Judging our sizes, maybe two or three people?" James answered cautiously and then searching the size of everyone around him, excluding Marlene and Sirius.

After a few minutes of thinking, Alice asked, "Well if there's only room for two people, I think it should probably be the two people who came up with the dare? I dunno, just an idea, really?".

"That's a good idea" Peter confirmed, causing everyone else to agree as well.

Racing upstairs to fetch his cloak, James shouted down "I've forgotten how many people are actually in Gryffindor!" followed by a loud 'ow' and several thumping noises. He was have tripped over someone, Lily thought.

Seconds later, James had returned, limping slightly and then threw the cloak over Lily and himself. Not really believing that it was an _actual invisibility cloak_ waved to everyone and started pulling funny faces, seeing if they would notice. Of course, Lily had forgotten James was there too, and could see what she was doing. Until he put his head atop hers and whispered,

"It is real, Lil. Really genuine, I promise. They can't see us at all. By the way, nice faces you had there" before removing his head, though it seemed a little reluctant.

Only when the heat of his body had vanished, did Lily realised how much it felt comfortable to have James behind her like that. That wasn't normal. She had never thought of it like that, never thought she would ever experience that with James, ever.

Shaking her head as if she was laughing, Lily spoke in a loud voice so the others would hear her, "Well are we going or what?".

Only ten minutes later, they had arrived in McGonagall's classroom and were standing outside the office door. James had visibly sighed when they had reached this point because there had been no-one, and literally no-one, out in the hallways to laugh at his brother and sister like friends. However, they were at the climax of their dare. Taking a deep breath, Sirius and Marlene both put large fake smiles on their faces, grabbed each others hands and then knocked on the door off the office.

A few seconds later, the door was opened. As soon as she saw the two practically naked students in front of her, Minerva McGonagall's eyes bulged in surprise and most likely disappointment.

"Hello Minnie!" Sirius' voice quavered. He knew he was in trouble already and using his favourite nickname for the teacher would only make it worse, but still he had an act to keep up.

"What do you two think you are doing?" the Professor instantly asked, causing Lily to start giggling, clap a hand over her mouth and turn her face into James' shoulder to stop the sound reaching the woman near them.

"We would like to ask for your blessing, Miss", Marlene was shaking.

"Blessing? For what?"

"Well, Minnie, we are engaged! I, Sirius Black, have proposed to my wonderful Marlene and she accepted me! Will you do us the greatest honour of giving us your blessing?"

"SIRIUS BLACK! MARLENE MCKINNON! YOU BOTH HAVE DETENTION FOR TWO WEEKS. I WILL NOT TOLERATE THIS BEHAVIOUR FROM YOU TWO, IT IS THE FIRST NIGHT HERE, GIVE IT A BREAK!" the teacher shouted before retreating into her room and slamming the door.

A/N: So I had this started today and I thought because I might not be able to update this weekend due to revising, I would post it tonight! Thank you to the people who have already reviewed and favourited my story, it means a lot! Anyway, again please message me if you want to be my beta, have a question or have a title idea! Otherwise please review!

A/N 2: Ok, I know I just posted this but I forgot to proof read it so I've made a few changes here and there and it's all good now. Sorry!


	3. Chapter 3

It took a few moments for the foursome to get out of their shock and sprint out of the door and round the corner before they burst out laughing. They were laughing so hard James fell on to the floor taking Lily down with him as she had been leaning on him to stop herself from falling. Of course, it being Lily and James, it ended up being awkward. James had ended up lying on his back and Lily had fallen on to his stomach so their noses were only an inch from each other. Their laughing stopped. Lily's breath caught, she wasn't used to this. Come on, it had only been a day since she had seen James and started being nice to him, and now she was lying on top of him with no intention of slapping him. Something had definitely changed inside of her over the holiday.

Noticing that two of his friends had suddenly decreased in height and stopped making so much noise, Sirius shouted,

"Doggy pile!" causing Lily to panic and scream before shoving her head into the boy below hers shoulder to stop herself from yelling too much.

A long five minutes passed for Lily and James at the bottom of the pile before their best friends removed themselves. Seeing James' face, Lily quickly got herself up before giggling and offering a hand to the boy making him take it and rise. An agreement to quickly get back to the Tower before they were all given a detention (a second one in Sirius' and Marlene's cases) came up causing them to start walking back, talking.

"That went well then, I thought we'd get more than a detention and yelling at. Minnie must be really dreading the year or really really tired" Sirius mused.

"Or she's really really really tired of dreading the year when you Marauders are here, that might be the answer, huh Marly?" Lily teased.

"Shut it Evans, you know she loves us thats why we're still here you know"

"Oh yeah, Black, I reckon there's a higher chance of you being kicked out this year because of NEWT's and everything"

"Wanna bet?"

"Sure, I'm confident. Name the terms"

Sirius' and Lily's mocking went on the whole way back to the Tower leaving the brother and sister to chat easily about what they wanted to happen during the year and what they were dreading most. When Lily unconsciously glanced back towards the duo behind her, she couldn't help but realise how well her best and new friend got along without trying; James' arm was casually hung over her shoulder and Marlene's arm around his waist while they chatted about random things, jumping from topic to topic so easily that anyone else wouldn't be able to keep up. Lily's mouth quirked up at one side further and further with each unintentional look she took at the two people, but she didn't realise when Sirius realised the new focus Lily had adopted.

"You know, I don't think you know how much James wants... well not wants, rather needs you to be a part of his life"

"What are you on about?" Lily genuinely confused asked, turning back to the smirking Marauder.

"You're so dense Evans, you really don't see it. I get that you're making an effort, I appreciate it and I like it, but come on, you've put him through hell these past five years so please don't be friendly and then suddenly turn off of him after a while. It'll break him. I don't want to see that and I think you don't want to either with the way you keep stealing glances when you think I'm not looking. I want you to be friends with us, hell it would be brilliant, but I'm looking out for my best mate and I know you're the thing that will make or break him. So just... you get what I'm saying, right?"

"Yeah, yeah I do, don't worry. I don't plan on breaking him, Sirius. Honestly. I want to be his mate as well as you other three like I am now. I know I'm the reason the Marauders and the girls aren't friends at the moment, and I want to change it. I want to prove it to you, I swear"

Sirius gave Lily an evaluating look before deciding,

"You don't need to, Lil. I believe you, just please don't let him down, if not for him or me but for you"

The group finally reached the Gryffindor Tower a few minutes later, having not come across anyone to catch them. Entering through the Portrait, the rest of their friends bombarded them with questions about how it all went and how their Head of House reacted. Soon after, Lucy let out a huge yawn, alerting Lily to just how tired the First Year was. Seeing as James and Sirius didn't hear their sister, Lily shuffled over.

"You look tired, Lu. Can I call you Lu?"

"Yeah of cou-" she yawned slowly, "se you can. Yeah I am, I just don't want today to end its too perfect to end" the girl replied with large eyes pleading with the Sixth Year to undertand.

"You know, you have the other girls in your dorm to make life long friends with and you now have our group here. You're never going to get a boring day around here at all. The Marauders especially will make sure of that. There will be all kind of awesome things for us to do this year and then next year as well. You don't need to worry about today ending, because other days will be better and you'll end up getting used to them" Lily winked at the end.

During her speech, everyone had become silent and started watching her, James more so than the others. Noticing that she was the centre of the groups attention, blushed heavily and mumbled self consciously.

Sirius frowned slightly and added, "Lil's is right Lucy. There will be other amazing days but there will also be sad and horrible days because of this war with the purity bastard which will affect a lot of the school and most likely a lot of us. But that will only make the good days more special and prominent in our thoughts. We'll all have fun here no matter what, ok? We aren't going to let anything bring us down and ruin Hogwarts for us"

Everyone stared at Sirius stunned before Remus cracked a smirk and muttered, "Well done Pads, lots of big words there" effectively breaking the tension and making everyone bar Sirius laugh.

A few minutes later, everyone bid the others goodnight and headed to bed meaning that Lucy reluctantly hugged everyone and stumbled up the stairs to find where she would be living for the next seven years. Eventually Lily, Alice, Dorcas, Marly and Mary found themselves in their dorm and started changing before Mary spoke up.

"This year is going to be different isn't it? Friends with the Marauders and then the War raging outside the castle?I wonder who we're going to lose"

Dorcas hugged her best friend and whispered, "Yeah it is going to be different but it will be a good different. Maybe less James and Lily fights in the halls!" she shot Lily a teasing look, "But, hopefully we won't lose anyone, if we do, we'll get through it, we're all strong enough"

The conversation stopped as everyone finished changing and retreated into their beds and heads. Lily was the last to fall asleep due to the thoughts racing through her head.

_Well, today was eventful. Start of sixth year, Befriending of the Marauder I vowed to hate forever. Meeting said Marauder's little sister who is actually amazing. Sirius being serious and using big complicated words. _She chuckled quietly. _Dorcas is right, this year will be good and I'm going to make the best out of this War. I refuse to let anything bring me down. NEWT's are are next year and I've got to do well. And now I've got five more friends to help me get through everything, I'll be fine. The Marauders will help me laugh and stay happy and my girls will be the solid foundations that I've had since the first day. And little Lucy will be this exciting new experience. Especially being James' little sister, so she'll be tough. She'll be amazing for helping me annoy James!Everything is changing and I like the sound of it._

With a small smile on the redheads face, she fell asleep.

The next morning, Lily awoke first to the loud shouting and then to the gentle shaking from Alice on her shoulder. Grumbling, the girl pulled the covers over her head trying to block out the loud voices from the Common Room before she heard the words, or rather names, being called.

"EVANS, MCKINNON, PREWETT, MEADOWS AND MCDONALD GET YOUR BEHINDS DOWN HERE BEFORE I COME UP THERE!" Sirius was bellowing.

Typically, Marly was leaning out of the door shouting back, "NO SIRIUS, WE HAVE A CHOICE WHETHER TO SEE YOU OR NOT AND WE CHOOSE NOT. GO TO BREAKFAST AND SHUT UP" before turning and slamming the door.

Lily smiled at Marly gratefully and snuggled further into her covers before the door burst open again.

"Surprised girls?" Sirius smirked causing the girls to stare at him confused as to how he got there. The stairs should have turned to a slide!

A second later the other three Marauders barged into the room and stopped dead. James and Remus immediately started apologising.

"We couldn't keep him from coming up"

"We tried to stop him from shouting but"

"He got past us, sorry"

Alice finally shut the boys up by shooting them a lot causing them to be quiet from the fierceness, "Black, what do you want?"

"And how did you get up the stairs without activating the charm? Do you have something to tell us boys?" Lily teased.

James finally realised Lily was in the room and stared distractedly at her, unconsciously starting a staring contest with the girl.

**Well fuck. I didn't mean to start this! Her eyes are beautiful today, a really light green on the edges like spring grass and a dark evergreen on the inside by the pupil. Beautiful. She's beautiful even with messy hair and not fully awake! How is that even fair?! Am I... Is someone speaking to me? Oh shit**.

James finally turned away from the girl he fancied, possibly was in love with, and turned to face Peter who was tugging on his wrist insisting that they had to leave and that they would meet the girls in the Great Hall in a few minutes. James looked around, surprised to see that the other two Marauders had disappeared and the five girls in the room glancing at him amused and smirking slightly in Lily's case. ** Stupid feelings getting me into embarrassing situations yet again. **

Still grinning from James' blunder, the girls made their way down to breakfast ten minutes later, and seated themselves in amongst the Marauders and started up conversations whilst helping themselves to food. A few minutes before the first class, McGonagall arrived and gave everyone their NEWT level time tables before moving on down the table. Comparing with each other, Lily found she was in every class with James, Sirius and Marlene and in the majority with the others_. One thing is for certain, my classes this year aren't going to be boring_, the prefect thought happily as the four friends headed down to the dungeons for double Potions with Slughorn.

**A/N **I'm back! Like I said in the last A/N I forgot I had to carry on because I didn't get any emails from Fanfiction. Net and so I've only just remembered... Yeah so what do you guys think? Am I writing it ok? I'm still looking for a Beta to proof read this for me as I'm really bad at it:L Yeah so PLEASE REVIEW MY LOVES!


	4. Chapter 4

The day passed uneventfully for the Sixth Years with them simply going to their double classes; Potions, Charms and DADA. Obviously whenever James and Sirius were together they goofed off once in a while, somehow still taking notes on what they were doing which was mostly notes on what they were doing over their NEWT's preparation. But when all four Marauders were together, they usually caused at least a little havoc. In Charms they caused the Slytherin's books move in the other direction when they reached to have a look at some information or to write anything down. Flitwick was to amused and the year was too early to give the boys a detention so he settled for a warning and threatened to take points away if the charm wasn't lifted.

Aside from the mishap in Charms, the day passed calmly until classes were finally over when the four boys bolted from the classroom, up to their dorm and locked themselves in. Only realising what they were doing too late, the girls all split up. Alice was going to meet her Sixth Year Hufflepuff boyfriend, Frank Longbottom, whilst Mary and Dorcas went to the library to find some books on hair styles which they had been discussing how to do magically since that morning. Shrugging Lily and Marly wandered back to the Common Room tossing ideas about what the prank the boys were planning might be.

That was until they had an unexpected encounter with the person Lily wanted to see the least in the entire school. The black haired boy blocked the corridor making it so that the two girls couldn't pass by to carry on to their Common Room.

"Lily I need to talk to you"

"What do you want, Snape? You've done nothing but hurt Lily since you started to hang around all those wanna- be Death Eaters" Snape winced, "which you're probably one of now so why don't you shut up and move out the way? And why you're at that, leave us _alone_" Marlene defended. With each word, Snape shrunk more into himself. When Lily was his best friend, Marly had been civil to him, almost friendly and now she had shut him out just as much as Lily had. Snape wouldn't admit it out loud but he missed having friends like Marlene was to Lily and vice versa. None of the Slytherin's were that friendly to anyone and they certainly weren't as close as the group of Gryffindors.

Feeling the anger bubble up under the surface, Snape stood straighter and his voice as firmer, "I'm not leaving until I speak to Lily. Yeah, whatever, I'll leave you Gryffindor's alone but not until I speak to her".

Lily placed her hand on her best friends forearm, silently telling Marly to let her speak to him herself and that she needed to let her do this. The slightest nod was given from the black haired girl next to Lily, encouraging her to step forward and confront Snape, "So talk, you have five minutes and no more. I'm not feeling lenient to you Snape" pulling her wand from her boot.

In a rush Snape struggled to speak properly, "I never meant to call you that word, that was all Potter's fault, maybe Black's as well. I swear if it wasn't for those arrogant toe-rags, then we would be fine right now. You believe in second chances so please give me one Lily, I need you to be my friend again . I know you hate the Marauders just as much as I do so why can-" but he was interrupted by the Prefect.

"In case you haven't noticed _Snivellus" _using the names Sirius had given him two years ago, "I'm friends with the Marauders now, not with you. Stop telling me what to do. I can make my own friends and my own enemies and at the moment you're leaning more towards the latter. Don't give me that pathetic look. I know you want to be a Death Eater, don't deny it. And that means you want to get rid of my kind. Muggleborns. Or as you so kindly put in June, Mudbloods" she glared. "Why would I give you a second chance when really I've given you so many since First Year. Get over it Snape, we aren't friends anymore and we never will be. So leave me alone" and with that Lily made a wide circle around the boy from her childhood and carried on to her destination leaving two very stunned people.

Marly snapped out of her stupor and made sure to hit Snape's shoulder as she passed before jogging to catch up with the mad girl in front of her.

"Hey Lils?"

"Yeah Mar?"

"Are you ok, sweetie?"

After a few moments of silence, Lily finally responded in a calm voice though her words showed her frustration, "No, not really. I mean he called me that word, he didn't have to say the curse word he could've just stayed silent. But no, of course he just lashes out, he can't bear to have someone come and defend him so he hurts me as well. I mean, he says it just slipped out but that means he uses it a lot otherwise and thats worse than just calling me a Mudblood. It's because he's friends with all of the wrong sort isn't it? I mean if he wasn't sorted into Slytherin would he still be friends with him and on the path that he is?" she got quieter on the final question and looked sadly at Marly who gave her a comforting hug.

"Ok, first off, you've got to remember that it wasn't your fault so don't beat yourself up about it. But otherwise, I think it doesn't matter what House he was sorted in to, it was how he was bought up and his ideals as a result of that. Even if you were still friends and you were still his anchor to the good side of this War, a majority of his mind would be on the other side and that would happen even without his friends and his House. There's nothing to do about it now and you wouldn't have been able to do anything in the past either"

Lily's non-committal "I guess so" ended the conversation as they reached the Fat Lady and stepped through. Heading towards the girls staircase to put their bags away, they ran in to Lucy. Well, they were run into. As Lucy was running round the corner of the staircase, she collided with the other two girls. Helping the younger girl up as she had fallen backward from the impact of the larger girls, Marly asked "Hey, what are you in such a rush for? Where's the fire?"

"There isn't a fire, there's four other girls trying to make me play truth or dare and they are already obsessed with the idea that I've got a crush on the Marauders because I was hanging around with you guys last night!" the younger girl exclaimed loudly relieving weird stares from the other occupants of the room.

Calmly, Lily reassured Lucy, "Don't worry you can stay with us instead if you want. Go find a sofa and we'll be back down when we've put our bags in our dorm ok?"

Lucy agreed and ran to the only free sofa, conveniently right in front of the roaring fire.

A few minutes later, the two Sixth Years returned and started quizzing the youngest Potter about her first day.

"It was amazing, at breakfast Mc... McFonarol?"

Marly grinned whilst Lily corrected her, "McGonagall, sweetie, don't let Sirius hear you say the other" before winking.

Lucy smiled and carried on, "Yeah, her! Well, she gave us our timetables and I had Herbology, Care of Magical Creatures, Transfiguration and History of Magic... Did you know Binns is actually so boring? He made a goblin war sound like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly! Anyway yeah my day was pretty awesome, I made some friends in Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff so I've got a few friends now"

The conversation carried on in the same way pretty much talking about first days and funny memories from their time in their younger years before they realised it was soon to be dinner and they might as well head down to the Great Hall.

Quarter of an hour later, everyone was seated in the Hall, the Sixth Years all together and Lucy and her friends close by but in their own group. Soon enough, Dumbledore stood to start the meal which was obviously the signal for the Marauders to start their prank.

Sirius stood boldly on the bench where he was sat and shouted at the top of his voice, which could be very loud, "Prepare for mayhem!" before pointing his wand at the ceiling and muttering an incantation that caused glitter of red and gold to fall and land on the students below. As this happened, James muttered another spell causing the clouds that were in the imitation of the sky to turn thicker and redder so that they covered the entire canopy and swirled prettily. After the glitter had stopped falling, everyone that the decoration covered started to turn a different colour depending at the house table they say at; Gryffindors turned a light purple, Hufflepuffs turned a bright orange, Ravenclaws a dark grey and the Slytherins a neon pink.

During the commotion of people laughing at each other and the stunned expressions of the other houses, Peter cast the last spell that caused the glitter to fly back up (still leaving the coloured skin) and form the words, 'Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs are delighted to welcome you all back to school. And we want to warn you; prepare yourself'.

Once the laughter and grumbling died down, the Headmaster stood. Even Dumbledore had not been spared from the prank though he didn't seem to mind judging from the twinkle in his eye.

"I do have to admit I thought this prank was going to come much earlier than this boys, I'm slightly disappointed. Though I'm glad it happened now as the first day is stressful for many and you may have elevated some of the unhappiness! Anyway, how long will everyone's skin stay these colours?"

The three other Marauders looked to Remus, they always took turns with who would answer the questions of the teacher on behalf of the group and Remus had the honour of starting this year off, "We wanted to encourage House unity today, Sir. Therefore when you compliment or help someone from another House, your skin will change back to your normal colour within the next few minutes... However, we wanted to mix it up for the Professors this time, Sir, and each will need to hug another teacher and then both people will have their skin back to normal in no time" he finished with a smirk.

As Remus explained the part about the teachers, nearly everyone swivelled their head to look at McGonagall and smirked as she glared at the four Marauders. Ignoring this, Dumbledore smiled and started dinner causing the food to appear, after assigning the Marauders a detention each.

A/N: Ok so I'm back! Two chapters today to make up for the three months I haven't been here... So again, what do you think? How's it coming along? Your opinions? PLEASE REVIEW DARLINGS!


	5. Chapter 5

The next morning, Dumbledore announced that the Quidditch team tryouts would be held within the next two weeks so captains should speak to their Head of House and put up flyers in their common rooms for people to sign up. James' face visibly paled. Suddenly he bolted up to the Heads table and started eagerly debating with McGonagall with lots of wide hand and arm gestures.

A few minutes later, James came back down to the table looking smug and whispered to his friends, "Our tryouts are going to be Saturday morning. So we need to find one Chaser, and a Keeper, don't we?"

Sirius frowned thoughtfully and replied whilst ticking off his fingers, "Dorcas and you are the Chasers are already, Mary and I are the Beaters and Will down in Fourth year is our seeker so yeah we just need one more Chaser to make three and a Keeper and then we have our seven players"

Obviously, this caused the boys to lean in eagerly and start discussing Quidditch tactics they could use that year and how much training they would have to do to get their team to work properly.

Retreating into her head yet again, Lily thought about how they had won five out of six Quidditch cups since she had started Hogwarts.

_So if they lost two players that means it was two Seventh Years right? Merlin, I can't believe I didn't go to most of the matches last year. This is so annoying, I can't remember for the life of me. OK so the Seventh Years last year... Well I remember there was a guy for the Chaser and a girl for the Seeker? Umm I think Michael Dilluan was the Chaser, yeah, yeah thats right! And then wasn't it... it was ummm Emily? Eva? Evangeline? E- something! Emmeline! Thats it, it was Emmeline Vance! SO they lost those two. They were good, James will do good to get someone of the same talent. _

Soon her musings were interrupted by Marlene nudging her side, and looking slyly to the Ravenclaw approaching the table looking directly at the back of Mary's head. Whispering in Alice's ear, Lily looked encouragingly at the tall blond and smiled smugly at Mary along with the two girls either side of her.

"Hi Mary"

Mary turned suddenly and cricked her neck painfully. Rubbing it gently, she replied with a smile,

"Hi...?"

"Rob Tyler, sorry I should have said" he said blushing lightly.

Mary joined the other four girls, Dorcas had turned in her seat to look at the newcomer, in mentally appraising the boy. He was handsome, that was for sure, just not in a Marauder fashion. He had light blond hair with blue- grey eyes that seemed to be constantly twinkling. His smile was loud and vibrant without being a smirk and obnoxious like someone who knew they were attractive. He was good looking and quietly beautiful; like Mary.

"Hi Rob, so can I help you somehow?" the brunette inquired quietly.

The boy started stuttering nervously before blurting out loud enough for the boys to be distracted from their Quidditch talk, "I was wondering if you would like to go to Hogsmeade with me please?" causing a stunned silence.

Everyone was hanging onto Mary's shy glance downwards and pale blush spreading down her neck quickly. After what seemed like at least a minute for their audience but was actually on a few seconds, Mary nodded and said yes proudly. The boy smiled and then arranged to meet her later in the library to have a chat whilst doing the Charms homework. Turning back to the table, Mary gave the girls a happy look and returned to the conversation she was having before.

o.o.o.O.o.o.o

Before Mary left that night, Lily blocked the door amused.

"Lily! I need to go I don't want to be late!"

"I know Mar, just don't go into any broom closets or anything, not tonight, I have patrol and I don't want to be the one to break you up, ok?"

Mary stared Lily in the eye and though she was clearly amused, the brunette could tell she was serious. She didn't want to see her friend sucking face with someone that would be around for two weeks until the Hogsmeade visit at least. Smirking slyly and winking, Mary slipped past Lily and muttered,

"I can't guarantee anything, Lils, but I'll try"

Lily settled back on to her bed, carrying on with the 2 and a half foot essay on the effects and process of brewing a strong Sleeping Draught for Potions which was due in two days time. The remaining four girls lapsed into a comfortable silence; Dorcas reading a Quidditch magazine, Alice writing a letter to her parents, Marlene painting her nails and reading Witch Weekly and Lily doing her homework.

ooo.

An hour later both Alice and Lily were free from their activities and were chatting about what they were going to do on the Hogsmeade visit.

"I don't know if I'm going with Frank or not, I mean we haven't talked about whether we're going with friends or with each other, so I guess we'll see closer to the visit"

"I don't know what the rest of us are doing, I suppose we're going as a group so you can obviously join us if you want but we'll probably split like we normally do after a bit"

Giving up on her nails, Marly joined the two girls on Lily's bed and joined the conversation.

"I think we should ask the boys to join us. You know, new year, new visit, new friends, new friends etcetera"

"Good idea, I suppose, it'll be fun and I guess they'll show us places in a new light. Yeah, I'll ask Remus when we're on patrol later" Lily replied with a smile.

The three girls carried on their conversation for a while discussing what they would buy in Honeydukes and what they need to stock up on from Zonkos.

Eventually, Dorcas interrupted, "You realise that Mary will be on her date so she won't be with you and therefore I'm not going. I'd rather stay here" before returning to her magazine stoically.

Whilst Lily and Alice wilted slightly at the obvious rebuff, Marly hardened,

"Are we not good enough company for you without Mary? I get that shes the good one and the connection but you know what-"

"I don't know what because I don't care. Just drop it already. I'm not going to Hogsmeade"

"Fine. It'll be better that way. I'm going to the kitchens, do you two want to come?"

"Sorry, Marly, I said I would meet Frank in five minutes"

"I'll come sweetie, I'll just have to leave in a bit to meet Remus in the Entrance Hall to start patrolling"

The three girls left through the door, the tall black- haired one remaining stiff and mad until she reached the common room when she relaxed.

o.o.o.O.o.o.o

Tickling the pear, Marly was still fuming about the dirty blonde girl back in the dorm, "I mean what is her problem?! We aren't bad-"

"What's up ladies? Fancy seeing you here"

The girls stopped dead. In front of them sitting lazily in the middle of the copy of the Gryffindor table, the Marauders were smirking cheekily up at them. Stalling herself, Lily started to walk forward and sat down next to Remus which happened to be across from James. When she looked up, James winked happily causing her to smirk and turned to Sirius.

"Marly is getting mad, you know how food calms her down, Black... Well that and one other thing" she said slyly turning to look at her best friend who was slowly going redder.

"Don't you dare, Lilac"

"But I think everyone wants to know, Marly!"

"Rose, if you want to live, shut up about it"

"What's with the random flower names?" Peter finally interrupted.

"Oh, when shes being annoying or I want to annoy her, I call her flower names that aren't Lily... I don't know how I picked it up actually"

"That's brilliant. You're sexily brilliant you know?"

"Ignore Pads, we fed him an Euphoria Potion earlier and he was already happy so he's gone even happier and slightly horny" as James explained, Sirius slid closer to the black haired girl and grazed his teeth lightly against her ear, causing her to shudder.

Exchanging awkward looks, Lily, James, Remus and Peter were all distracted as a little house elf came up to them and squeaked, "Would Masters Potter, Lupin and Pettigrew like anything else?"

"No thanks, Misty, we're still working at eating your fabulous chocolate cake" James declined kindly.

"Would Miss like anything to eat?"

"Hmm? Oh right, um do you have any sticky toffee pudding?"

"Yes Miss!" the little creature said happily before running off to a corner of the kitchen.

The boys looked at her weirdly before suddenly turning to where Marlene had been pushed down to lie on the bench whilst Sirius hovered over her. The girl was whimpering slightly before cracking and bringing the boys head down to kiss him.

Clearing his throat loudly didn't help the matter so Remus resorted to throwing his bag at them. Sirius was quickly knocked off the bench and on to his back. There were a few moment of silence with the two breathing heavily and staring at the ceiling whilst everyone stared at them incredulously.

The awkward silence was only broken when Misty returned with Lily's brown pudding causing her to squeal happily and grab the spoon, thank the house elf and dig into her dessert. James looked curiously at the dessert before asking,

"OK what is that?"

"Sticky toffee pudding"

"Again, what is it?"

"You've never had it?!" Lily exclaimed with the spoon hanging from her mouth. Impulsively, Lily sucked on the spoon, cut a large piece of the sponge and leaned forward before putting the spoon into the boys mouth. James chewed on the dessert, staring into the emerald green eyes surprised as she slowly took the spoon out of his mouth, staring back.

**Fuck, fuck, fuck. This isn't good. That can't... that little can't actually do that much to me!**

_I shouldn't have done that. That was stupid. Now I've gone and made this awkward!_

Whilst the two were staring at each other surprised, Sirius managed to drag Marly from her chair and out of the kitchens whispering to her all the time. Neither Lily or James noticed until Remus declared, slightly annoyed,

"Great, now we're going to find them snogging and Merlin knows what on our patrol. Great, how awkward"

That caused the two to snap out of their stupor and look to where their best friends were a minute ago. Shaking her head slightly, Lily mused,

"I have no idea what's going on with them, Marly fancies him, I know that much"

"I know Sirius fancies her too, I don't know why he won't do anything about it though. He's always murmuring her name into his pillow at night" James chuckled.

Remus being the knowledgeable one out of the Marauders explained as if he were talking to First Years rather than Sixth Years, "He doesn't want to ask her out because A) he thinks she might say no and B) he hasn't actually committed to a relationship before and he fancies her too much to risk mucking it all up"

"Well that's ridiculous, as her best friend I know she would say yes, she fancies the pants off of him, didn't you just see her?"

"Lets hope she doesn't get the pants off of him, that might end badly" James joked, ending the seriousness.

The four chatted easily for a few more minutes before Lily announced that her and Remus had to leave for their patrol. They headed toward the kitchens entrance before she turned quickly,

"Would you Marauders be up for going as a big group to Hogsmeade? Marly and I are going and we're not sure if Alice is, that depends on Frank, but we thought it would be fun"

"Of course, we'll come. We can finally show you how to have fun in Hogsmeade" Remus said, being rarely cocky, usually it was James or Sirius.

o.o.o.O.o.o.o

_Well that patrol was good, it was fun catching up with Remus and we didn't see Marly and Sirius or Mary and Rob snogging so that's all good_, Lily reflected happily as she entered her dorm.

As she sat down on her bed, she heard a soft sobbing coming from Alice's beds direction, Turning her head, Lily saw that the bed hangings were drawn around the bed, as Lily rose, Alice's sobs got a little louder injected with a few hiccups. She had been crying for a while obviously.

Drawing the curtains back, Lily sat down next to the short haired girl and started rubbing her back in a light massage,

"What's wrong hunny?"

"I... I" hiccup, "I told Frank I loved him"

_**A/N Ok so hey guys! This is one of my longer chapter and a few bits happen here so I hope you like it! I know I usually update in two's but I'm not entirely sure that will be the case tonight; I'll try but I cant promise. Please review! And I'm still looking for a beta so if you know anyone please ask them to message me? Thanks guys:) and to everyone that has already reviewed, you've made writing this even more exciting so you're all great, have a cookie and a hug! ONE THING; on Word it said I had 2,303 words but here it says I only have 2,261 but I can't find any missing parts so I'm sorry if I've been oblivious  
**_


	6. Chapter 6

Lily was stunned. She never knew that Alice was so serious about Frank and their relationship. She knew that Alice hadn't felt this way about anyone else before but she didn't know it was by this much.

"That's great, Ali, what's wrong with that?!" Lily asked, silently wondering why telling someone like Frank that you loved them would be a bad thing.

"Because I didn't mean to and I don't know if he feels that serious about me yet and I don't want to ruin what we have by making him feel awkward!"

"What did he say?"

Alice remained silent awkwardly, in the way that she did when she didn't want to admit something.

"Alice"

"I may or may not have but certainly did run away before he could reply?"

"Alice, you idiot! The boy is obviously in love with you! Go back to him, now, before you stop yourself and tell him you mean it. But for the love of Merlin, give him a chance to reply, alright?"

Looking at Lily warily, the hope and courage grew in Alice's eyes, she was going to do it, that much was obvious. Within a second, Alice was off of her bed and in the doorway. Suddenly, the brunette pivoted and ran back to hug Lily. She didn't say anything and Lily knew that was more thankful than if she did say something as Alice didn't think she was any good with words.

Lily was then left alone in the dorm with nothing to do apart from tidy her area and finish any scraps of homework she might have neglected before.

However, five minutes later and those two things were done and Lily was bored yet again with nothing to do. She didn't want to start a book yet, it was too early in the year to settle into a routine concerning books. Giving up, Lily flopped on to her bed and stared at the ceiling.

o.o.o.O.o.o.o

Quarter of an hour later, Lily found herself down in the Common Room seated with the Marauders, bar Sirius, around the fire. They were all chatting about random topics, jumping from one to another as if they were playing Hot Potato. Somehow they had procured some butterbeer and even a few bottles of firewhiskey causing them to be able to enjoy themselves a lot more and to relax a lot more than normal. Therefore, thats how Lily found James head to be in her lap, her hand slowly going through his hair unconsciously, whilst her feet were by Remus' head on the armchair.

Suddenly Lily's head perked up from where it was resting against the back of the sofa, "Can we plan a prank?"

James' eyes flew open, Peter fell out of his chair and Remus jolted so hard his head banged into Lily's feet.

"Wh- wh- what?!" James stuttered, slyly nudging Lily's hand with his head as it had stop its movements through his hair which he was enjoying immensely. Although she would never admit it, Lily enjoyed the feeling of his soft hair too much to stop so she carried on much to the delight of the wizard.

" I reckon the words were pretty clear you know... I'm not the smart uptight Prefect you think I am, you know?"

It was at that moment that Marly and Sirius returned from their extended broom closet session looking thoroughly content with themselves and each other. Their just- snogged appearances caused quite a few smirks from the remaining Gryffindors including the Marauders and Lily.

"You'll never guess what, Padfoot!"

"I bet I can!"

"No, no I don't think so"

"Ok, then I shall prove it to you Wormy. You actually got laid? Prongs finally got Lily? Moony admitted he's not a monster?" the boy said smugly. Peter just shook his head, chuckling.

"First, you need to be careful with what you say mate, and second you're wrong. Lily said she wants to plan a prank!" Remus admitted.

"That's not possible. Moons. Lily doesn't like us planning pranks. Marly, she's being crazy, yes?"

"'Fraid not. Lils has always wanted to plan a prank. After nearly every prank us girls deliberate how you pulled it off and 99% of those times Lily always mentions she wants to pull a prank. I've been expecting her to ask for quite a while now. However, it's nearly half eleven so I suggest we do this tomorrow. We'll come up to your dorm at about 6, yeah? That way we can do it at breakfast if we're quick"

The Marauders were too stunned to do much but gape like goldfish at the two girls, Lily's hand was still running slowly though James' hair causing Marlene to smirk slyly at her. It took a few moments of silence before the guys agreed and stated they were off to bed. Remus and Peter were the first two to leave, Sirius and Marlene giving each other a quick good night snog before leaving Lily and James to themselves.

Lily was waiting patiently for the boy to stand so that she could do the same but when she looked down in confusion, James had turned his head back to look at the ceiling and had closed his eyes peacefully.

"Hey James?"

"Yeah Lils?"

"You gonna get up and go to bed or not?"

"I'm alright thanks. I'll just stay her tonight"

"But I want to go bed!" Lily whined, giggling slightly. James was slightly tipsy and his actions had less thought in them meaning when he tried to raise his arm from by his side, it flopped down.

"You'll just have to stay here and sleep with me on the couch, I'm afraid"

"As much as that sounds tempting" note the sarcasm, "I really don't want to wake up aching and plus our friends will notice our beds are undisturbed in the morning. Do you really want that?"

"I don't care who knows, all I care about is you"

Lily knew he still fancied her but she didn't think he felt like that. It was like how he cared for Lucy and the Marauders. Brushing it off, blaming his tiredness, Lily started lifting his head.

"You're just tired, I'm seeing you in the morning and you won't get a good nights sleep on the couch"

Finally lifting the wizard off her lap, Lily started to stand but was suddenly restricted around her waist. Looking down, Lily saw that James' very muscular (_Shut up Lily!_) were wrapped around her, she couldn't move, his grip was too tight. Without warning she was yanked back on to the sofa.

James hadn't meant to put so much force into bring Lily back on to the sofa so he was stunned to find her suddenly lying on top of him, her face a few inches above his.

**Well fuck, I... Fuck she's close**

_Oh Merlin, Merlin, for the love of Merlin. To close!_

_**Why isn't she getting off? Oh, I'm still wrapping myself around her. Oh, wow, she fits so perfectly into me. Can I kiss her? No, you're working on friendship. Stop it, you twat. **_

_I want to move. I could make him move his arms. But how? And would I actually bring myself to move. His eyes, fuck, shit, bollocks. Lily Marie Evans, move!_

Before either of them could move or kiss, depending on the person, the Common Room portrait opened and none other than Lucy Potter entered, hair messed up and rubbing at her eyes tiredly. Noticing the two on the couch before they noticed her, Lucy crept over so she was behind them, and cleared her throat loudly.

Somehow, Lily had turned to the back of the sofa in surprise whilst James rolled the other way and off of the sofa, landing at his sisters feet. The smirk on the First Year could have been deemed Marauder worthy.

"So why is Miss Evans lying on top of Mr Potter at half past eleven on a Wednesday night?"

Both Sixth Years blushed furiously and stumbled out excuses.

"She fell on the rug"

"I lost my balance, I've had too much butterbeer tonight"

"Didn't want to chuck her off, I was winded"

"I was too stunned to move"

"OK ENOUGH, SHUT UP" Lucy shouted, she was still smirking. Making these two squirm was an enjoyable sight after such an exhausting night.

"Anyway, sis, what are you doing up and only just returning to the Common Room?" James asked, standing and ruffling his sisters hair even more.

Smoothing her black hair down and rubbing at her eyes so she saw stars, the girl replied, "I had detention with Filch. Some Slytherin pushed me into him and he fell into all the buckets he was using to clean. Had to clean the Trophy Room. Absolute nightmare"

"Don't worry Lu, all you need to do is give them a few good hexes and then you're free to terrorise them until you leave. It's fantastic!" Lily of all people adivsed.

A few minutes were spent recommending hexes and jinxes to use on Slytherins that pushed the youngest girl around before they all agreed that they should go to bed since Lucy was dead on her feet and Lily and James needed to be awake early to start planning and preparing their prank.

The girls said goodnight to the wizard and headed upstairs to the dormitories chatting sleepily. Before Lucy turned into her room she whispered so quietly, Lily only just caught what she said, "Thanks for changing your mind about my brother. It's changed him even more than after fifth year".

Returning to her room, Lily stewed over what the little Potter had said before turning onto her stomach and falling asleep, looking forward to finally pulling a prank in the morning.

_**A/N: OK, so here's the second chapter of the update I did the other day. That doesn't really make sense does it? But yeah, I'm not updating again today, unless I manage to get on the computer again and commit to writing for a hour. Anyway, I'm not sure when I can update again until mid September, I have a week until I'm going on holiday for two weeks and then I'm settling into Sixth Form so things may get a little hectic and I may forget or not have time. So please Read and Review, and thank you so so so so much to everyone that has reviewed, followed the story or my profile. You're all amazing:) love you all!**_


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